own head in such a way as to deceive the buffaloe:  thus dressed, he fixes himself at a convenient distant between a herd of buffaloe and any of the river precipices, which sometimes extend for some miles.  His companions in the meantime get in the rear and side of the herd, and at a given signal show themselves, and advance towards the buffaloe:  they instantly take the alarm, and finding the hunters beside them, they run towards the disguised Indian or decoy, who leads them on at full speed toward the river, when suddenly securing himself in some crevice of the cliff which he had previously fixed on, the herd is left on the brink of the precipice:  it is then in vain for the foremost to retreat or even to stop; they are pressed on by the hindmost rank, who seeing no danger but from the hunters, goad on those before them till the whole are precipitated and the shore is strewn with their dead bodies.  Sometimes in this perilous seduction the Indian is himself either trodden under root by the rapid movements of the buffaloe, or missing his footing in the cliff is urged down the precipice by the falling herd.  The Indians then select as much meat as they wish, and the rest is abandoned to the wolves, and create a most dreadful stench.  The wolves who had been feasting on these carcases were very fat, and so gentle that one of them was killed with an esponton.  Above this place we came to for dinner at the distance of seventeen miles, opposite to a bold running river of twenty yards wide, and falling in on the south.  From the objects we had just passed we called this stream Slaughter river.  Its low grounds are narrow, and contain scarcely any timber.  Soon after landing it began to blow and rain, and as there was no prospect of getting wood for fuel farther on, we fixed our camp on the north, three quarters of a mile above Slaughter river.  After the labours of the day we gave to each man a dram, and such was the effect of long abstinence from spirituous liquors, that from the small quantity of half a gill of rum, several of the men were considerably affected by it, and all very much exhilirated.  Our game to-day consisted of an elk and two beaver.

Thursday, 30.  The rain which commenced last evening continued with little intermission till eleven this morning, when the high wind which accompanied it having abated, we set out.  More rain has now fallen than we have had since the 1st of September last, and many circumstances indicate our approach to a climate differing considerably from that of the country through which we have been passing:  the air of the open country is astonishingly dry and pure.  Observing that the case of our sextant, though perfectly seasoned, shrank and the joints opened, we tried several experiments, by which it appeared that a tablespoon full of water exposed in a saucer to the air would evaporate in thirty-six hours, when the mercury did not stand higher than the temperate point at the greatest heat of the day.